Sundar Pichai said he supports the walkout
Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Business Insider in a statement that management supports the protest:
"We let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate," he said.
But Google engineer Liz Fong-Jones encouraged the press to shift their focus away from Pichai's support.
All of the headlines that start with "Google CEO supports..." are focusing on the wrong thing.
What matters today is workers' voices and demands.
It doesn't matter whether management claims to support; the real test will be whether the demands are met. #GoogleWalkout
— Liz Fong-Jones (@lizthegrey)
November 1, 2018
Many staff have signalled their intention to join the protest.
I'm walking out tomorrow with thousands of my coworkers because I believe it's past time for this abuse to stop. It's clear neither government nor business leaders will fix this on their own. We have to do this ourselves y'all. #googlewalkout ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿https://t.co/PCtYo7Ieuk
— Amr Gaber (@amrtgaber)
November 1, 2018